Windows 8 Tops 5 Percent

Microsoft ended last week's Build developer conference on a high note — increased Windows 8 market share.

The operating system topped 5 percent market share in June, according to stats from Net Applications, finally eclipsing Microsoft's Vista OS. Still, Windows 7 and Windows XP still rule, with 44.37 percent and 37.17 percent of the market, respectively.

Windows 8 landed at 5.1 percent last month, up from 4.27 percent in May. Vista actually also saw some growth - from 4.51 to 4.62 percent - but still dropped from No. 3 to No. 4.
Windows 8 isn't exactly a runaway hit, though. The OS sits behind Apple's Mac OS X, which has 7.2 percent of the market overall.

For comparison, Microsoft's Windows 7 - which was released in Oct. 2009 - had 1.47 percent of the OS market by the end of 2009 and 14.46 percent by the end of 2010, according to Net Apps.

On the browser front, meanwhile, Microsoft's IE is still on top. According to Net Apps, IE8 remains in the top spot, though IE10 is expected to break through in the next couple of months, thanks to its introduction on Windows 7.

Version 8 made up 22.67 percent of the market-share pie last month, while IE10 is crept up to 13.52 percent — 10 months after its initial release. Mozilla Firefox 21 and Google Chrome 27 are holding their own, as well, boasting 12.47 percent and 13.76 percent, respectively. Apple's Safari, meanwhile, accounts for only 3.27 percent of users; other browsers collectively take 16.48 percent.